circunimafandomcom-20200215-history
Sylvanna Civil War
The Sylvanna Civil War was a civil war fought in the Sylvanna region between an elitist faction of the Elven Court and a cabal of Nadurtha Druidic Circle in the year 49 APC. Background In the year 71 BPC the Nadurtha circle, fearing the rising industrial element in Ash City would lead to the denaturalization of the Plainterra, migrated to Sylvanna, settling in the eastern territory known as Daonna Adhmad where they intended to live in peace with the forest. From the very beginning the druids found the native fey to be standoffish at best, though a treaty struck with King Oberon of the Elven Court prevented any hostility to the druids so long as they continued to live in harmony with nature. In spite of this, elements within the fey sought the removal or destruction of the druids they felt had polluted their forest with their human presence. In time, these disparate hate groups were discreetly united under a secret leader - Tylavar - and began to plot a coup of the Elven Court, merely awaiting their opportunity to strike. That opportunity came when the armies of the Elven Court were marched south to join others in a war against the power-hungry war criminal Feusang. Mere days after the departure of the soldiers, Tylavar and a number of goblins loyal to him took control of the capital city of the Draoicht Adhmad region and began launching attacks in earnest on the druids and those who supported them. The War In less than a month's time from Tylvar's coup, sympathizers to the druid's cause lead by Maithreil, a powerful lady of the Elven Court, began an underground resistance with the end goal of capturing Tylavar and driving his army from the elven capital. The resistance also shielded the druids, many of whom were unwilling to engage in bloodshed and thereby break the treaty signed with Oberon. The plan to invade the Elven Court was daring and required a team of champions to pull it off. This came in the form of an unlikely band of outsiders who had wandered into the forest by happenstance; * Annywyn: An elven druid whose disdain for the company of sentient lifeforms was put on hold to seek out a dragon's egg stolen from her care by Tylavar's minions. Annywin was accompanied on her journey by Rin, a mountain lion and her only true friend. * Axel: A blacksmith's son from Phoenix City who, after following terrible visions into the forest, learned that he was cursed with a demon bloodline due to a pact his father had made before he was ever born. * Darius DeQuorum: A human chronomancer with knowledge of the future. * Nairobe: A dark elf spy who found herself in the forest on the other end of a portal from another realm. * Orin Lodestone: An exiled female dwarf warrior from Dvergheim looking to reclaim her honor. * Spaz: A halfling thief with a peculiar spell component; magic acorns that, when planted, would cause giant trees to form. Annywn, Axel, Darius, Nairobe, Orin, and Spaz were relatively quick to meet, finding themselves driven into the same place by marauding packs of goblins lead by the fearsome chief Graken, who managed to kill Darius during the skirmish. The remainder of the group was rescued by Arum-Baer, a gnome working for Maithreil's resistance, who made them aware of the war and tasked them with discovering the source of the taint that had begun to kill all life in the forest to see if they were worthy of heading the charge into the Elven Court. Along the way, the group passed through a borderland swamp belonging to the enigmatic grenouille, where they sought advice from a grenouille shadow-man known as Armel. Armel turned out to be a devious informant indeed, and nearly stole the souls of the heroes before being driven away by the timely arrival of Sir Galary and Sir William, two paladins of the Order of Helios. Though banished, Armel became a consistent thorn in the side of the heroes, acting as an informant to Tylavar, who began utilizing more sublte means of dispatching them. The first of these was exercising control over the illusory nature of the Domhain Adhmad to bring a dream of Orin's in which the ghost of Darius warned him of a "hunch" of danger to life; as a malevolent gremlin known as The Hunch. This creature, though deadly, was felled by Sir William's magic and Axel's spiked chain. As the heroes journeyed deeper into the swampland it became apparent that Sir William considered himself and his methods superior to the others. He began to take point and formulate strategies for the others much to their annoyance. Things took a turn for the worse when they were engaged in battle once more by Armel, who had taken advantage of an ancient boneyard to create an army of skeletal dinosaurs. Though Spaz managed to fell the grenouille necromancer and his army by using her magic acorns to grow a tree right through them she was killed in the aftermath. As Sir William's planning had lead the group into the ambush, the death of Spaz cemented a growing distrust in him among the others. The incident, though not forgotten, was somewhat pushed aside when Graken, the very enemy that had threatened the heroes at the beginning of their journey, challenged Axel to a duel, promising to reveal the secret of the forest taint if Axel could defeat him. The night before the duel was a restless one for Axel as he learned of his fiendish heritage through the intervention of a demon claiming to be his father in a nightmare. The demon offered greater power in exchange for giving into his evil nature, which Axel accepted as he believed it the only way to win the duel. The next morning Axel went through a transformation into a fiendish monster as he entered the battle against Graken, and though successful at cutting his enemy in half, with Graken explaining in his dying breaths that the taint was the result of Tylavar's evil corrupting the forest itself, the fiendish blacksmith nearly turned on the group until the intervention of an old friend; Spaz had been returned to life by the auspices of the goddess Demeter who not only restored her vitality but also gave her a new gift; a "green thumb" that would cause whatever she implanted into fertile ground to grow as something else. The sight of Spaz allowed Axel to regain control of himself. After Spaz explained her ability she decided to test it by planting a gold coin in the earth, expecting it to increase their fortunes. Instead, it caused a golden pyramid to rise from the ground. Feeling the call of treasure, Spaz rushed inside and, not wanting to lose their friend, the others journeyed inside. Sure enough, the magical pyramid trapped them inside, and Tylavar at last saw his opportunity to defeat his enemies by placing a well-camouflaged portal inside the pyramid. Following a number of encounters with traps and monsters inside the pyramid, the group found themselves going through the portal, where they faced magically created force elementals in the service of Tylavar. Sir William insisted on waiting to fight the creatures until they attacked first, despite the clear threat they presented, and the others at last turned on him, simultaneously slaughtering and looting the body of the paladin (whose body fell into a dimensional rift never to be seen again) so fast that the negative echo coalesced into a rare chance artifact; The Cursed Die Of Sir William. After dispatching the force elementals, the heroes found themselves at a loss to get home until the ghost of Darious DeQuorum appeared once more to explain how to utilize divine magic to open a portal from the dimensional rift right into Tylavar's lair. This accomplished, the heroes engaged Tylavar directly in a final climactic showdown in which the purpose of the dragon egg was revealed; as a battery for a weapon that would have killed all non-fey in the forest. The heroes proved victorious, saving the forest in the process. Aftermath Following the victory of the heroes over Tylavar's army each went their separate ways; * Annwyn left to raise her dragon in peace. * Axel, stronger in spirit, returned to Phoenix City with Spaz, Sir Galary, and Nairobe, who had opted to remain in the realm and renouncer her evil heritage. The four companions would continue to pursue adventure there as mercenaries. * Orin Lodestone, now a hero of legend, was able to return home with honor.